Home Hope Musetti: 'I'm Learning A Lot Every Match'

Twelve months ago, #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti made his debut at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, where he gave Italian fans a glimpse of his exciting potential.

Since then, the 20-year-old has grown as a competitor on the court since and arrives in Milan as the top seed at the 21-and-under event this week. Over the past year, Musetti has broken new ground. He clinched his maiden tour-level title in Hamburg in July before he rose to a career-high No. 23 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in October following a title run in Naples.

It has been a fruitful second year on Tour for Musetti, who is happy with the path that he is on.

“I’m learning a lot every match, every day on Tour,” Musetti told ATPTour.com. “I think it’s going to be like this for the rest of my career. There are always going to be up-and-downs but you have to be strong on the down and of course you have to celebrate on the ups. I think it’s part of my experience and my growth.

“I think everybody has their own process. Jannik [Sinner] and Carlos [Alcaraz], are of course Top 10, already involved in that top part of the game. I’m not yet there, I’m working towards it. For sure you don’t have to wait until 24 or 25, you can reach that as 20, 21, or 22. But I think the most important thing is don’t rush yourself. You have to have goals and have the hunger to put in the work and sacrifice, creating experiences will provide you a lot of good tips for reaching the top.”

After enjoying a strong start to the season, highlighted by title success at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Forli, Musetti’s results and performances started to dip. He arrived at the ATP 500 clay-court event in Hamburg off the back of six consecutive tour-level defeats and was staring another loss in the face when he dropped the first set against Dusan Lajovic in his opening match.

However, the Italian was able to turn around the match in a win that gave him a much-needed boost.

“It was not an easy period for me because I was not winning so much,” Musetti reflected. “I couldn’t feel the consistency of winning or playing high-level matches but there, I was playing well. Dusan was playing really great. I saved two match points and fought until the end. It gave me good feelings and hope for the rest of the tournament. I think it inspired me to fight until the end as I did also in the final. I think it was the key for me to achieve this really important tournament.”

Having survived that first-round scare, the 20-year-old downed Emil Ruusuvuori, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Francisco Cerundolo before he edged 19-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz to win the title. The victory was a landmark moment for Musetti.

“It was really tough to end the match because Carlos is an incredible fighter, incredible player,” Musetti said when analysing the final. “Carlos is pretty famous for his comebacks, it’s a war. You have to kill him. Until the last point, that’s what I had in mind, that the job was never done, it was never finished. When I realised he missed the backhand on match point, I was dreaming and I was really proud of myself for all the sacrifice and all the hard work I’ve done this past year.”

Musetti, who has been coached by Simone Tartarini for 11 years, is part of an exciting crop of upcoming Italian stars on Tour, with 10 of the 20 Italians inside the Top 200 aged 21 or under.

The 20-year-old revealed he is excited by the success his country is enjoying and is ready to battle it out against his countrymen, with whom he enjoys spending time with on Tour.

“[There are] a lot of Italians now, like [Francesco] Passaro, [Giulio] Zeppieri,” Musetti said. “They are really close friends and I would be really interested in playing against them and with them.

“There are a lot of Next Gen players that can produce a lot of good tennis, a lot of results. I think we are sharing a lot of good moments inside the court, off court. I think we will share it for the rest of our careers. We are going to probably end up together, I’m pretty happy to be part of this next generation.”

When he is off court, Musetti enjoys listening to classic rock music, with Linkin Park one of his favourite bands. Music is a passion he has picked up from his dad, who used to play '80s and '90s rock music to his son.

Musetti will be hoping he can take inspiration from his musical heroes and put on a show in front of his home fans at the Allianz Cloud Arena next week. Musetti feels that if he can hit the right notes, he has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Hyeon Chung, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz and leave the event with the trophy.

“It was really nice [last season]. It was the perfect crowd at a perfect site. A really nice stadium, really nice atmosphere, especially for an Italian,” Musetti said. “You could feel the Italian crowd really involved in the match so for us it was really nice. The results were not the best, but this year I’m looking forward to playing again in Milan. I’m looking to be one of the seeds or the one who is passing in the groups. In the end, I hope to be the champion.”